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Documentary examines voter roadblocks

USC Gould School of Law • November 7, 2008
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ACLU series filmmaker screens ‘Protecting the Ballot’ at USC Law

—By Jason Finkelstein

By exercising their right to vote on Nov. 4, a record number Americans let their voices be heard. But for some, the journey to the ballot box has been obstructed, according to a documentary television series from the American Civil Liberties Union.

Rick Perez, co-executive producer of the ACLU’s “The Freedom Files” documentary series, screened an episode titled “Protecting the Ballot” for USC Law students Tuesday, Oct. 28. The event was part of the Public Interest Law Foundation (PILF) Speaker Series.

The half-hour film detailed the battles over recently proposed voter identification bills in the states of Georgia and Texas. Both pieces of legislation stipulated that voters would have to present government-issued photo identification before being allowed to vote.

The Freedom Files documentary seriesThe proposals were justified by their supporters as necessary to prevent voter fraud through impersonation at polling places. But according to the film, there were other motives.

Statistics presented in “Protecting the Ballot” indicate that stricter identification requirements cause minority, disabled and elderly voters to stay away from the voting booth, which in turn hampers Democratic votes by five to six percent.

“Voter impersonation is rare if not entirely non-existent,” Perez said.

At the time of filming in 2005, Georgia’s bill had become law, but was put on hold by an injunction from federal courts. That injunction has since been lifted, and Georgia now does in fact require photo identification in order to vote.

Other states with a photo identification requirement include Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan and South Dakota.

Meanwhile, the Texas bill passed in the state House of Representatives, but was defeated when Sen. Carlos Uresti of San Antonio made a dramatic appearance in the Senate chamber, leaving his sickbed in order to cast the deciding vote to block the bill from consideration.

Perez described the challenge of producing a documentary film on a tight budget while trying to tell as many timely, personal stories as possible.

“At what we thought was the end of our research, all of a sudden we would get a phone call from our Texas affiliate saying, ‘The day after tomorrow, they just scheduled a hearing. They’re going to blind-side us!’ We’d have to pick up, send a crew out there, and shoot what we could shoot,” Perez said.

In answering student questions, Perez also made sure to explain that the documentary was not intended to serve as an unbiased account of the facts.

“Our focus was to tell the civil liberties side. Primarily, that’s where the money came from,” Perez said. “We’re not pretending to be news; we’re filmmakers with a point of view.”

To learn more about ACLU’s “The Freedom Files,” click here.

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